By Peggy Jo Goodfellow, Arizona Farm Bureau: Recently, a member called clearly upset that he could not get the $500 Ford rebate on the new Ford that he had purchased a month or so ago because Farm Bureau said he was not a member. He explained he’d been a member for over five years, how could he not be a member? I pulled up his membership record and found the rest of the story.

Make sure to keep you Farm Bureau membership current. Even a 30-day lapse in your annual membership could mean you'll be unable to take advantage of key member benefits like the Ford $500 rebate. 

The records showed his membership dues expired on February 28, 2015 but he didn’t pay them until April 14, 2015 creating a gap in his membership. Hence, when the Ford dealership ran his membership number through the Ford membership verification system it showed he had not been a member for 30 consecutive days.

Unfortunately because of this gap in membership, the Ford rebate was denied. Don’t let this happen to you! Before going to your local Ford dealership, go to www.azfb.org and download your Ford rebate certificate. If the system won’t allow you to run a certificate and you have been a member over 30 days, it might be a case of non-payment of dues or a gap in membership was created. In that case, you may want to wait until you qualify for the $500 rebate before purchasing a new Ford vehicle. Who doesn’t want to save $500?

Two other Farm Bureau member benefit discount providers, Case IH and Polaris require membership verification and a printed certificate too. The difference is these two member benefit discounts are incentives not rebates, therefore they require that eligible Farm Bureau members present their certificate in advance of product delivery to receive the incentive discount.

We’ve added more than 100 new regional benefits for members. With this extensive array of benefits, you’ll want to check them out online or with your Farm Bureau app on your smart phone. For questions about your Arizona Farm Bureau member benefits, call Peggy Jo Goodfellow at 480.635.3609.

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